As the clock counts down to “Doomsday”, people are beginning to debate and study the topic more. We have already established our research-backed stance on this subject in a previous blog post about the 2012 doomsday. With less than two years before the “ominous day,” OnlineClock.net would like to create another blog post to emphasize the point that many Doomsday scares have happened in the past – and the world always continued on.
This blog post will detail some of the most famous failed Doomsday predictions in history.
Some of the earliest end-of-earth predictions came from the Old Testament in the Holy Bible, which has numerous references about the return of Christ being the end of this world, but the beginning of a new and better one. One of the oldest Doomsday predictions was by Rabbi Dosa, who believed that the Messiah would return in the year 400 AD. He based his belief from the scripture of Genesis 15:13. As fully explained and detailed in an article by Biblical Research, Rabbi Dosa was arguing with other rabbis over the supposed number of years before the Messiah’s return. At the time, it was believed that event would end time on earth and brought panic. According to our sources, there were at least 200 dates in history in which Christians believed the world would end – or the Messiah would return, beginning the process that would end the world. The date January 1, 1000 AD was one of the most famous ancient historical dates in which the world was believed to end. Societies believed it so strongly that they stopped planting crops, set prisoners free and neglected other duties. Imagine the mess of confusion when the world continued to exist on January 2, 1000.
The middle of the 14th century was believed to be the end of the world at one point. The rumors began in the early part of the century when “The Little Ice Age” happened. According to “The Disastrous 14th Century,” published by the University of Wisconsin, this era saw world temperatures cool to record lows, causing Alpine glaciers to advance and the Baltic Sea to freeze over completely in three separate years. Later in the century around 1347, the Black Death, or Plague, hit. This legendary plague of mysterious black-colored bleeding lesions started in Italy and spread throughout the European continent. After a couple years, people began to believe that this was the end of humanity. As a result, doom and gloom spread and people sat and waited, wondering when their turn to die would come. Of course, the plague ended, but not without several more waves before the turn of the century. In the end, over a third of the population had diminished, which was linked to a reference in the Bible in Revelation, talking about how a third of the earth would be destroyed in the “end times.” But the earth’s population thrives today and a vaccination exists for the “Doomsday Plague.” Scientists also have reason to believe that the plague outbreak was linked to the drastic climate changes.
The Black Death on Tour: Coming To A City Near You ?
Later in 1524, there was another Doomsday flood scare. Chronicled in “Niccoli Prophecy & People In Renaissance, Italy,” theologians, astronomers and philosophers debated the issue, but it was wide-spread enough to cause a disastrous panic. The idea stemmed from a prediction of catastrophic disasters due to the multiple planetary conjunctions in the Pisces sign. Reports of people being fearful of a great worldwide flood that would wipe out mankind spread quickly. On page 141, there is even suggestion that people were dying from the tremendous fear they felt. But, there never was a flood and the world is still here.
In the 1660s in Russia, there was a Doomsday prediction related to Biblical prophecies. The Book of Faith, which was considered the “old belief” book, foretold the Antichrist’s advent in 1666 and the end of the world in 1669. Thousands awaited the “end” by sleeping in coffins, not tending to their fields or responsibilities. As the world continued to exist, the leaders claimed they made a mistake and the end of the world wasn’t for another 30+ years. Meanwhile, their leader was burned at the stake in 1682. To avoid the end and certain persecution, more than 20,000 believers of the old faith burned themselves alive. This event is detailed on pages 30 and 31 of a Thesis written in 1982 by Patricia White Johnson of Oregon State University.
According to a time-line published by Religious Tolerance, there were many different end-of-the-world predictions throughout the 1700s and 1800s.
Two well-known religious predictions were that of Charles Wesley predicting the world’s end in 1794 and William Miller, who predicted the world would end in 1843. After Miller’s first failed prediction, he changed the date until a later one in 1844, which is now referred to as “The Great Disappointment” in Christian history texts. The event took that name because many believers sold off all their worldly goods in anticipation of Christ’s return – and the end of the world. As they tried to gather the pieces of their lives after 1844, time marched on. The famous 16th-century mystic, Mother Shipton, predicted the world would end in 1881; thousands believed her, too.
Albert Porta, a meteorologist, gained national attention when he predicted the end of the world would occur on December 17, 1919. According to page 13 of “Two Dangerous Presumptions of Second-Coming Prophecy” by Duane V. Maxey, Porta claimed that there would be a conjunction of six planets, which would pierce the sun. The effect would be flaming gases that reached so far that they would engulf the earth in flames. His prediction caused so much panic that several people around the world committed suicide.
It's the end of the world via a massive Robot Attack!
Of course, there have been more recent scares. In “History of the Digital Age,” by Michigan State University, there is reference in several blog posts to 1960s scares about robots taking over (hey, OnlineClock.net thinks that’s kinda cool!). The movie I-Robot made people worry that their world would be taken over, bringing an end to society as they knew it. Another scare that has many people world-wide worried about the world ending is global warming. As noted earlier in this article, the world has experienced extreme temperature changes before; this is nothing new. As reported in Reason’s 2000 recounting of the first earth day, a college crowd was warned that a Harvard biologist predicted the world would end within 15 years if immediate environmental safety measures were not taken. Of course, oil was drilled more profusely and more pollution-causing cars and factories opened, but our world still exists. However, pollutants have been proven to cause harm to human health.
Jim Jones of Jonestown - he flunked the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Some cults’ apocalyptic predictions have gained publicity and caused scares. One example is the Jonestown massacre, led by Jim Jones. South Dakota State University outlined the history of this cult that committed a mass suicide on November 18, 1978. Then there were other smaller scares, such as the Y2K scare that our newly computer-dependent world would collapse when the Y2K bug devastated electronics and computers worldwide, but it never happened. We also survived pandemic virus scares, such as SARS, Bird Flu and Swine Flu.
As mentioned in our blog about 2012, we do not believe the world will come to an apocalyptic end in 2012 – or any future dates predicted beyond that. As far as the predictions by Nostradamus of a World War III beginning in 2012 that would escalate years later to an apocalyptic end, it is important to remember that not all of his predictions came true.
Come on and rock me, Nostradamus
In hopes of providing a “mythbuster” about Nostradamus, Cal Tech University published a cool and informative Nostradamus FAQ. A good point made in Number 4 is that earthquakes, fires, wars, genocides and all other bad events have always existed, but “CNN has not been around until recently.” This is a very true and logical point – who would know about such things if they weren’t so readily available, thanks to the news?
As far as the wording of the writing of Nostradamus, it is vague and poetic, almost so metaphorical that it could be perceived in any way. He did make some date-specific predictions, but on most of those dates, nothing catastrophic happened. His metaphorical and cryptic words can be twisted in a number of ways to mean anything and applied by the power of suggestion to any event. Consider newspaper horoscopes – any reader can choose one randomly and find a way to apply it to their own life; they can then read another one from a different sign and those creative universally-designed words can also be applied to their life. If there is anything that can be learned from all of this is that the power of suggestion is more phenomenal than anything, but we should be careful about believing what can’t be backed up with proof and facts.
OnlineClock.net plans to keep ticking through all of the future’s silly Doomsday scares – and we hope to keep our valuable readers with us!
So when you see our Doomsday Countdown online, please be intelligent to know that our tongue is quite firmly positioned in our collective cheek.
Hmmm, now just what are we going to show on that Doomsday Countdown on the day after doomsday?!
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